Homeplug standard for home/business automation?

[Madma_from_maui]

Does anyone have knowledge of any home/business automation companies experimenting with or having perfected homeplug standard devices? Homeplug standard network devices used power lines in a building to create a local area network. I have used homeplug devices for installing IP camera security systems, they are obviously very much the future of networking. I am expanding my consulting business to include home and business automation. So far my research into the existing companies, indicates that most are still using analog systems. I would like to start with a company that is aware of the future of automation, and has already switched to some form of networking. With homeplug standard devices, you could have an IP device in a light switch that would control lighting, or anything that runs on electricity, and not even have to run data or power runs to these devices. These systems would be open, using off the shelf networking equipment and a server to control a buildings heating and cooling and lighting, or just about anything you could plug into an electrical outlet.

Shannon Perley
Maui custom surveillance

 

[upstatemike]

Lots of folks have brought up the idea of using an ethernet standard for home control but the problem always seems to come down to price. The overhead required to support a Homeplug type device is just too expensive to justify it in a a simple device like a light switch.

Light switches have simpler protocols that can be implemented much more cheaply. For now it is still cheaper to have a separate lighting protocol and bridge it over to your Homeplug network at a home automation controller of some sort.

 

[Madma_from_maui]

Lots of folks have brought up the idea of using an ethernet standard for home control but the problem always seems to come down to price. The overhead required to support a Homeplug type device is just too expensive to justify it in a a simple device like a light switch.

Light switches have simpler protocols that can be implemented much more cheaply. For now it is still cheaper to have a separate lighting protocol and bridge it over to your Homeplug network at a home automation controller of some sort.

With a homeplug device, you would eliminate the cost of running power and data lines to the device that controls lighting or heating for instance. Whatever analog device that is now used in control of heating and cooling, fire control, and lighting, would be substituted for an IP device that might cost a little more, but that cost should be offset by eliminating the cost for running wires. On the control side, you would eliminate the need for a proprietary processor using off-the-shelf servers, although the software might be proprietary. Also, the monitoring would be done remotely via the Internet instead of analog telephone lines.

 

[rocco]

I think that Mike's point is that the current "wireless" protocols for home automation (UPB, ZWave, Insteon and Zigbee) are much more cost effective than Homeplug for many applications, such as light switches. Also ZWave and Zigbee allow for battery-powered applications, which Homeplug cannot.

These lower-end protocols, however, are not capable of supporting higher-bandwidth applications, such as IP cameras. So Homeplug does have a place, if it can successfully compete with WiFi and UWB (WiMax).

My money (if I had any) would be on UWB for IP video, however.

 

[upstatemike]

I don't know. Lots of folks just love to go wireless with everything but I still don't trust wireless devices/protocols. The one wireless device I installed lately (a 2.4 GHz camera in a funeral home) had all kinds of issues because of the WiFi network running there. I'm sticking with wires for the forseeable future!

(I also got a brand new cell phone 2 weeks ago and have yet to turn it on... I just don't find wireless stuff to be that useful).

So I guess I'm saying that I wouldn't bet against Homeplug just yet. I think it will give WiMax a run for it's money.

 

[rocco]

I hear ya, Mike. I felt the same way.

Four years ago, I went with the original HomePlug for my networking, using the Siemens HomePlug/Ethernet adapters. Despite the low cost ($39 each node), the market went WiFi instead, and I was later forced to replace it all with G.

I don't know why the market chose the one over the other, but I see no reason why it would chose differently this time.

 

[gskinner]

Anyone seen Internet-0 products?
the web site is interesting, but it appears to be a school project for now.
the schematic shows a little node that would cost very little make, but does not go into any detail

 

[toymaster458]

I have seen them about a year ago on the Discovery Channel. Instead of me writing a whole large message on it, here is a link that does a good job of introducing it.
http://www.media.mit.edu/physics/publicati...rs/04.10.sciam/